How can you build a strong incident management culture?

It is essential that each member of any level within the organisation at each role has a clear understanding of the vision and goals ahead and why and how they can accomplish them. When you lead with honest and open communication within all levels of the organisation to reach company goals through teamwork, when every team member's opinion counts and knows they can impact the organisation, it gives purpose and meaning to the team and makes this part much easier and clearer. It can prevent unnecessary conflicts of "who's responsibility" and help each member focus on their actual duties and responsibilities, save precious time.

Training of the staff is important, on how to be using the systems to be looking at the incidents reported and also on how to be dealing with customers, that have become frustrated with using the software or tool that is supported. But also being able to look at back history of issues the customer has had is also important, especially if they are seeing the same issue every few weeks or months. But it is also essential that each member in a support team has a clear idea as to where not just the support team, but where the companies goals lie as well. They also need to know as to how those goals can be accomplished. The staff knowing when to get help and assistance, is also important as is being rewarded for achieving goals.

Without clearly defined roles, you cannot expect anyone to take ownership of the responsibilities in your business. Simply delegating tasks is not enough. Each person must understand how they impact the business and why each of their job functions fits into the big picture. When people know others are relying on them for specific things, they are far more likely to execute on those things consistently.

I'm always big on team alignment. Effective team alignment should happen at every level as it can be quite pivotal in minimizing incidents. Oftentimes though it is when incidents occur that the gaps are exposed, highlighting the necessity for clearly defined roles. Assigning roles based on skills and availability establishes a structured approach, while documenting escalation paths and decision-making authority ensures a cohesive response, fostering a well-coordinated team effort in incident handling.

At work, during a major outage, we revamped our incident response by conducting regular drills. This prepared everyone and improved our response time for future incidents. From experience, creating a blame-free environment is key. It encourages open communication and a focus on learning from mistakes, speeding up resolutions. I’ve found updating the incident response plan regularly crucial. It keeps us prepared for evolving challenges and involves the team in making it more effective.

Establishing common incident language , defining terms like incident , impact ,severity , root cause and resolution is very important. Another important part is making use if standard naming conventions and using the Incident command system.

Incident language means defined guidelines and what is the meaning of each word or status. In case one person is using resolved for task completion and other is using done. But it can create confusion as other team members can understand differently. The main parts need to be defined are: 1. Nature, such as it's for hardware, software, network etc. 2. Priority, means how urgent it is and need to be dealt as such. 3. RCA, for knowing the core of problem and maintaining history 4. Delegation, in case not resolved by responder or need additional support. 5. Status, resolved or in progress or on hold or delegated 6. Result, how it is resolved, what steps taken, who was involved in solution.

It is important that all the role players have the same understanding of what an incident is, what priority is, what impact is and what severity is. It is important to illustrate this in a table to indicate how all these terms relate to each other and define what each priority level is, how to identify and classify the priority level based on the severity and impact of the incident.

One of the ways to build a strong incidents management culture is by creating robust workflows. Establish a workflow for a clear process that encourages rapid resolution time. This includes identifying major incidents, communicating to impacted stakeholders, assigning to the right individuals to fix the problem, following and documenting the lifecycle of the incident.

Given that incidents are sporadic events, there's a risk of the incident language and response framework falling into disuse over time. To mitigate this, it's crucial to conduct regular training sessions, even in the absence of real-time incidents. These sessions serve as refresher courses, helping team members maintain a high level of familiarity with the established terminology and response procedures. Consistent training ensures that the team is well-prepared and responsive when incidents occur, preventing any potential confusion or miscommunication that might arise from a lapse in knowledge.

Training is important not only for technical aspects but also for the management of incident and how to handle frustrated customer. Introduce new methods or techniques to the team for improving performance and handling of incident. Of course, not to forget technical aspects, which are core for resolving any incidents. Introduce them to any first time incidents and how it was resolved. Familiarize them with any new useful tools available, which can make their work efficient. Also during training not just deliver like a lecture, it shall be like open discussion. Encourage team to discuss the rare incidents and how they handle ot and what can be improved. It will educate other team members as well.

You need to train , empower , motivate , mentor and lead your team from the front . Taking ownership, providing feedback and proposing solutions . Providing the team with all the necessary trainings required , engaging with them time to time on regular basis is also very important .

Training is vitally important to provide your team with the confidence, competence and skill to deal with incidents and users effectively. Training should address technical competency and customer service to handle calls in a professional manner. Continuous training is necessary to keep up to date with new technologies and with the rapid rate of change in IT. With proper training your team will be able to deal with incidents effectively and efficiently.

Training is very important at all levels and we all don’t have the answers to questions posed to us, so we should listen to everyone’s point of view, as you may just get that great thing come from someone you weren’t expecting it from. Encourage your staff to want to learn and grow it’s not only good for them but good for the business.

The importance of trainings can never be overemphasized. This shouldn’t be limited to the IRT alone but to the whole organization. Everyone should know the “first aid” step to take in the event of a situation. Regular training sessions for both staff and IRT, also simulation. This would help everyone know their role in the case of an incident. Also regularly conducting a business continuity test would help members of staff know what can be done and achieved during an incident.

Communicating openly and transparently with your team is very important , building trust and collaboration with the stakeholders and customers is absolutely the needed. You also need timely updates on incident status and actions taken using appropriate communication channels. You should also acknowledge mistakes, apologize for disruptions caused , thank your team for the support provided , thank the customers for being patient throughout the time .

Again my views on this is that incidents happen in business and we all learn from mistakes, most people won’t,don’t communicate clearly either up or down the communication chain normally due to people being afraid of letting people have to much knowledge in the end that won’t save you. Be clear with the people we work for and with higher and lower on the communication chain and treat people well and you will reap the rewards. I’ve been at both ends of the communication chain and fortunately I had a great couple of bosses and managers that nurtured me.

Document everything in a central location (the ticketing system!) so that everyone involved can easily track status updates. This saves time and also prevents mistakes.

It is always important to communicate with all stakeholders affected by the incident, other IT support teams that need to be in the know of incidents that could be part of a bigger problem, the business and the support team. Technical information would be communicated amongst the relevant IT teams for knowledge sharing and to effectively address and resolve the incident. The customer needs to be advised at regular time periods on the status of the problem, the estimated time of resolution and the systems affected. It is also important to apologise for the interruption to service.

- É extremamente importante manter os clientes à par de tudo que está acontecendo no tratamento do incidente, para que ele não sinta que o mesmo está parado, sem tratamento. - Entre os colaboradores, manter uma cultura que incentive a troca de experiências e conhecimentos é fundamental.

Treat each incident as a learning opportunity, conduct thorough PIR, and implement preventive measures. Encourage open communication, promote a blameless culture, and focus on system improvement rather than individual mistakes. Remember, the goal is continuous improvement and resilience, not perfection.

It is beneficial to do a post incident review and analyse the cause of the problem or root cause, the corrective action taken to resolve the incident, what could have prevented the incident from occurring and how to continously improve in resolving future incidents and the whole process.

Also lessons learnt to be used to improve current processes and heighten security to prevent reoccurrence. The lessons learnt are also important in improving incident management policies and the security architecture of the organization.

Creating follow-up tasks based on the action items provides the team with much accountability and prompt implementation of the action items.

Incident is a gift, gift that we can learn from to prevent incidents recurring. By analyzing the incident timeline, root cause, impact, and actions taken, we can identify key areas for improvement. Documenting lessons learned and tracking follow-up tasks helps us enhance our processes and reduce future incident recurrences.

Recognitions should not only be awarded by managers to direct reports within their team. For greater impact to teams and company morale, it is beneficial to award recognitions amongst teammates, to management and to colleagues in other teams.

In unserem Incident Management ist es wichtig, eine Kultur zu fördern, die Work-Life-Balance und Teamwohl betont. Dies spiegelt die Erwartungen der jüngeren Generationen wider, die eine ausgewogene Lebensführung hochschätzen. Eine Umgebung, die Leistungen anerkennt und Erfolge feiert, wird von allen Teammitgliedern geschätzt. Der Fokus liegt auf Anerkennung statt auf finanziellen Anreizen. Indem wir eine Atmosphäre des Vertrauens und der Wertschätzung fördern, beeinflussen wir sowohl die individuelle Moral als auch das Teamgefüge positiv. Wir schaffen eine Kultur, die jeden Beitrag würdigt und unterstützt, und respektieren dabei die Bedeutung von Work-Life-Balance für eine nachhaltige Arbeitsumgebung.

Recognize their efforts in resolving incidents, and reward them for their hard work and dedication. This not only boosts morale but also encourages proactive behavior. Regularly celebrate successes, and make sure your team knows their contributions are valued. Remember, a motivated team is key to effective incident management.

Incentives goes a long way to keep team members motivated. This shouldn’t be focused on just the team leads but for every member of the team. Because every team members input is a team leads output.

This is important, your top contributor should be rewarded and trans should celebrate wins together. Thanks for this...

One very important point not mentioned earlier is the necessity of having a Relations Strategy. It is crucial to develop a comprehensive communication plan for incidents. Formulate effective relations strategies to maintain transparency and manage the perception of your organization/area. Define spokesperson roles, establish secure communication channels, and ensure a swift and accurate dissemination of information to uphold the organization's reputation during challenging situations. Whether your stakeholder is internal or external, communication is essential to reassure them that the necessary work is being done and it will result in the best solution possible for this incident.

Integration with Other ITIL Processes: Integrate incident management seamlessly with other ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) processes, such as problem management and change management. This ensures a holistic approach to addressing incidents, identifying underlying problems, and implementing changes to prevent future occurrences.

Have a solid incident management process comes in very handy because when these incidents happen, they will not always be the same but if there is a system in place as to how to handle them it makes life easier for you and your teammates. It is important to be able to identify an incident, know how to log it, know how to call the attention of the required stakeholders so it gets dealt with as soon as possible.